# Is there anywhere I can legally download movies and TV shows for short term viewing **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835 "2013-02-19T21:37:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/1 "2013-02-19T21:37:35Z")
I have a netflix account and a smartphone. My smartphone hits its data cap at 2.5GB a month, after that it is throttled. Netflix on the lowest quality setting uses 0.3GB an hour, so after 8 hours I will have hit my monthly cap. However my home internet is pretty nice, I get about 25Mbps (not that most sites upload that fast but still) with no data cap. I was wanting to legally download movies and TV shows on my home internet, put them on my phone so I can watch them later, then delete them when I’m done. Doing so means I don’t have to worry about burning through all my bandwidth by streaming videos. So far the only ways I have found to do this are by downloading video podcasts, but most of those seem to be news shows. It’d be nice if netflix had this option of letting you download a few hours of video on wifi, then having it automatically delete within 48 hours or so so you don’t run into any 3G phone bandwidth issues, but I don’t think they do that. Are there any other options aside from video podcasts? ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/2 "2013-02-19T21:48:29Z")
Well, the [Tivo Stream](http://www.tivo.com/products/tivo-stream/?WT.ac=tivohome_mantle_stream) sort of does what you’re talking about, though I believe it’ll only do it with stuff you record and/or actually download, like from Amazon (and even that’s spotty - there’s a disclaimer on the Stream that it doesn’t let you transfer copyrighted materials, and I’m guessing a lot of what you might download from Amazon is copyrighted). Of course, it wouldn’t work with Netflix, because you’re streaming it, not actually downloading it. Other than that, I got nothing. ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/3 "2013-02-19T21:51:18Z")
I believe it’s possible to rent movies from the iTunes store with a PC, and sync them to an iPhone or iPad. I’ve never tried though. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/4 "2013-02-19T21:58:16Z")
The Google Play store has movie and tv show rentals that allow you to download the videos to your phone/tablet, but it’s not free. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/5 "2013-02-19T22:14:42Z")
I’d rather not use sites where you have to rent each movie individually, at $1-3 each that will add up fast. I’d prefer either a free site or a site like netflix with a low monthly fee. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/6 "2013-02-19T22:41:56Z")
People really want to watch movies on their phones? The mind boggles. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/7 "2013-02-20T00:30:28Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > People really want to watch movies on their phones? The mind boggles. Yup. It is more convenient and easy to carry than a laptop or tablet. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/8 "2013-02-20T01:15:32Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > Yup. It is more convenient and easy to carry than a laptop or tablet. Convenient? But it’s about as far removed as possible from the way the filmmakers intended for you to experience their work . I don’t think I would feel like I had really _seen_ the film if I had only watched it on a phone screen. ---
**Author:** ![emacknight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/3ec8ea/32.png) [@emacknight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emacknight)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/9 "2013-02-20T18:38:08Z")
I’m not 100% certain, but I believe that with Amazon Prime you can download to certain Kindle products. Superscription is about $70 per year and you’ll need to spend about $200 on a Kindle product. There are some free aps that will let you download youtube clips, that can be converted to phone quality. And lastly, there are usenet groups that have a more modern day version of file sharing. There is both legal and illegal content on them, so you need to be careful what you do. ---
**Author:** ![busterpickle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@busterpickle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/busterpickle)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/10 "2013-02-20T20:34:42Z")
No, no 100% legal way to do this. I know Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon are all about protecting their content and go to great lengths to prevent any unauthorized capture. Every way that I can think of involves breaking encryption or removing the copyright protection that is embedded into the video stream. Can’t say it as I’ll get in troubles. ---
**Author:** ![BeeDubU2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BeeDubU2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BeeDubU2)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/11 "2013-02-20T22:01:53Z")
I’ve had success converting DVDs to mp4 format, then loading the file to my iTunes and from there to my iPhone. It takes a long time to convert the DVD, though. ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anywhere-i-can-legally-download-movies-and-tv-shows-for-short-term-viewing/650835/12 "2013-02-20T22:19:53Z")
> [@emacknight](#): > > I’m not 100% certain, but I believe that with Amazon Prime you can download to certain Kindle products. Superscription is about $70 per year and you’ll need to spend about $200 on a Kindle product… According to [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html?ie=UTF8&docId=1000798971), you can only download purchased or rented videos, at least on iOS devices. If I am reading [this](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0083PWAPW/ref=amb_link_367791442_2?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-2&pf_rd_r=0Q875S5S5YKFE67JMBYT&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1446105322&pf_rd_i=133141011#prime) correctly, the same is true for Kindles. It looks like Prime videos are only available for streaming.